The deadline for an individual to submit an application to be considered in the Tennessee Supreme Court’s process of choosing the next attorney general is Friday, July 29.
“Interested candidates must submit an application by 12:00 p.m. CDT on Friday, July 29, 2022. The Supreme Court will hold a public hearing to interview candidates on August 8 and 9, 2022 at the Nashville Supreme Court Building. The hearings will be livestreamed to the TNCourts YouTube page,” the Court said in statement earlier in July.
The Court opened the application process on July 15.
Current Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery is not seeking an additional eight-year term and will leave office on August 31.
Previously reported, the Court additionally said, “Under the state constitution, the Tennessee Attorney General and Reporter is appointed by the state Supreme Court and serves an eight-year term. The term for the new Attorney General will begin September 1, 2022.”
On the topic of public hearings, it says, “The Court will review the timely submitted complete applications and select those applicants who will continue in the selection process and participate in the public hearing.”
As of press time, the Court has yet to provide an explanation of how the public hearings will be conducted, who can speak at the hearing, whether the public can ask questions, or how long the candidates will be given to speak.
It is also unclear if the Court will release all the names of applicants, or just those who advance to the next round in the selection process.
According to the Tennessee Supreme Court’s statement:
As the chief legal officer of the state, the Attorney General and Reporter represents state officers and agencies and manages a staff of approximately 340 employees working in five offices across Tennessee. The Office of the Attorney General represents the State in criminal appeals and defends the State in civil actions in state and federal court. The Office also has the authority to investigate and prosecute civil actions for environmental enforcement, antitrust violations, Medicaid fraud, and consumer fraud. The Office has four major divisions – Civil Litigation (Civil Law, Environmental, Real Property & Transportation), Criminal Justice (Criminal Appeals, Federal Habeas Corpus, Law Enforcement & Special Prosecutions), State Services and Litigation (Education & Employment, Financial, Health Care, Public Interest, Tax) and Public Protection (Bankruptcy, Consumer Protection, Tobacco Enforcement).
Tennessee Chief Operating Office for Governor Bill Lee, Brandon Gibson, was thought by insiders to be a lock for the position, until she started letting it be known that she’s “now unlikely to even to apply for the job” due to negative reaction, sources say.
It is unclear whether an attempt to persuade former Deputy to the Governor and Chief Counsel Lang Wiseman to seek the position of attorney general will be a successful recruitment effort.
The Tennessee Star has reached out to Gibson and Wiseman on several occasions and did not receive a response.
– – –
Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, Truth Social, and Parler.
Photo “Tennessee Supreme Court” by Thomas R Machnitzki. CC BY-SA 3.0.
They will have to search high and low for someone worse than Slatery but I am confident that Mr. Lee will come up with yet another loser.